Chapter 2 The Depth Of Betrayal

Selene's POV

I woke up that morning with Something I had never felt in a long time. Hope, but also a different kind of feeling I couldn't understand.

The nausea came at first, it was gentle, just a little when the morning sun slipped through the windows and kissed the edges of my bed. I blamed it on my nerves, on the sleepless nights I spent tangled in silk sheets with him.

But as the days passed, it grew worse. Then the dizziness, the sudden rushes of heat in my cheeks. The overwhelming need to rest, even though I barely had the luxury of time or peace to do that.

There was Something ... .different. I pressed my Palm lower, just underneath my navel. And there it was, A flutter. Not hunger or pain, it was a movement. My knees gave out under me as I sank to the floor.

My hands shook as they held the place that now felt sacred. Tears dropped down my cheeks....hot, sharp, and completely overwhelming. "Oh Moon Goddess...." I whispered, breathless.

"I'm pregnant."

My Voice broke out saying the word. It didn't seem real until I said it out loud. A rush of emotions surging through me...fear, joy, disbelief. Everything all at once as I curled around myself on the cold marble floor, one hand on my belly.

I'm carrying his child, a piece of Rael growing inside me. The thought made my lips curve into a soft smile. A part of him was now living inside me, and for once, I didn't feel just like an omega. I felt powerful.

"There's something I need to tell you, Rael." No, that sounded too heavy. "I think you'll want to sit down." I had already started rehearsing what I was going to say to him a thousand times. No, I couldn't make it too dramatic.

After all these nights with him, the way he touched me, the way his eyes lingered on me when he thought I wasn't watching...it meant Something. It had to mean something. I wasn't just another omega in his bed, I was his mate.

I held on to the thought as I stepped into the hallway, their gazes slipping past me like I didn't exist. That was fine. They didn't matter to me, only Rael did. Today was the Alpha's Gathering- an event held only when important information was needed to be announced by the Alpha himself.

The entire Crimson Moon Pack would be there. Whispers were already filling the corridors about new alliances, and political threats, but I didn't care about all that. I only cared about what I had to tell him.

"He would be so happy," I murmured more to myself than anyone as I stood at the edge of the crowd, my hands shaking slightly as I searched for him. There he was.

Alpha Rael.

My heart began to skip at the sight of his presence. Tall, commanding, his clothes clung to every inch of strength on his body. His face was unreadable, having no smile. The way it always was in public.

But I knew that face, I had traced every inch of it with my lips, and my fingers when he made love to me. He didn't seem to see me yet, so I pushed through the crowds, passing between noble families and warriors, ignoring the eyes of the she-wolves and high-ranking Omegas who noticed me.

"Alpha Rael is ready to speak," a voice announced from the elevated platform. My steps slowed, Rael stepping forward, his eyes scanning the crowd like a king about to pass judgment. I expected his eyes to find mine. To soften, to linger. But it didn't.

"My people," he began, his voice deep, echoing across the courtyard. "Tonight marks a new era for the Crimson Moon Pack. One forged by a new alliance." He turned slightly, extending a hand. And then I saw her.

A strange woman, elegant woman elegant and beautiful in a way that made the world stop spinning. She walked onto the platform like she had always belonged there. Rael, looking at her in a way that I had always begged the Moon Goddess to one day be looked at by him.

No....

No. No.

"This is the Luna I am getting married to," Rael spoke, and the courtyard erupted in applause. "My bride. The union will strengthen our reign." Every sound faded around me, all I could hear was the shattering inside my chest. I couldn't breathe.

My knees gave up slowly underneath me, but I didn't fall, I couldn't draw attention to myself. I backed away slowly, the crowd closing in around me filled with noise and celebration.

No one noticed me in the corner, no one had seen the tears slipping down my cheeks, hot and bitter. He...he had made love to me and kissed me just two nights ago. Held me like I was the only thing that mattered to me in this world.

And now...

He stood beside another woman.

His Luna.

And I....

I was nothing to him. I don't remember how I got back to my chamber, nor did I remember who passed me, or the words I murmured to the guards at the hall. My feet moved before I could think, my hands shaking as I tore the ceremonial robe from my body and collapsed onto the bed we once shared.

The bed where he had made love to me like his survival depended on it. Whispered into my skin. My sheets still smelled like him. "No.....No!!!"

I screamed, breaking down with the sound muffled in the mattress, but it tore out of me like a wounded animal. I gripped the blankets until my knuckles turned white and the muscles in my arms ached.

And through it all, I held my belly.

Our child.

His child.

No....this child belonged to only me now, it was mine to protect, mine to save. He didn't want us, he had never wanted us. Maybe I had been special to him for a moment, or I might have stirred something in him that even he didn't understand.

But all that didn't matter now. He had already made his choice, and I was about to make mine. I packed in silence, only a few clothes, some good to keep me and my baby alive. A blade I had stolen from the guard's quarters.

My hands moved quickly, wiping the tears off my face as I slipped out of the servant's door, quiet so that no one would notice. Each step away from the Crimson Moon territory felt like a heavy weight placed on me.

Hell.. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't care either, I just knew I couldn't stay here and look Rael in the eyes. Not where he ruled, certainly not where whispers would turn to mockery once they discovered I carried his child, like some pathetic secret.

No.

My child would never be born in shame, even if I had to carve a place in the world with blood on my hands for them. "I'm so sorry," I whispered to the life inside me. Pressing a hand to my belly, my eyes filled with tears.

"I promise you this...I'll never let him near you. "

"Never."